Yet there was a sense early on that Cochran was going to win. Obsessed with the game since he was 13, he learned from his last time on Survivor and played a perfect strategic game. His greatest strength, this time out, was his ability to take out the biggest threats at just the right time.

He also got lucky. His last bit of luck was having Erik Reichenbach go off the rails early on Sunday night’s finale. Erik might have teamed with Dawn Meehan and Eddie Fox to edge Cochran out, but in this game’s final shocker, he quit on Day 36, his stomach, he later claimed, bugging him almost the entire game. He bounced back quickly, recovering in time to slam away as a final jurist.

The well-groomed jurists clearly accepted Cochran’s claim that he played the best strategic game. His social game grew, too, to the point where he was a virtual therapist to shaky Dawn. He eliminated every threat, called all the plays, and, along the way, won four challenges, a feat not even he imagined he could pull off. Cochran was indeed, as he claimed, the Challenge Monster.

Sitting next to Dawn and Sherri Biethman at the final three gave Cochran a free ride. Supremely unaware Sherri was completely dismissed by all of the jury members.

“You were a seashell on the beach,” snapped Erik. The jury seemed even more done with Dawn, as was Cochran, who tired of her “catatonic breakdowns.” As he also put it, “Every day I see a new freak out from Dawn.”

Cochran maneuvered himself into the final three by winning the final immunity challenge, a puzzle game. Again, Cochran lucked out with a game he could win; this was no great test of endurance or strength.

Winning immunity allowed Cochran to edge his last possible threat, happy-go-lucky Eddie, out of the game. Eddie was likeable and had very little negative baggage. He had to go.

The big jury showdown was between Brenda and Dawn. Still stinging from her betrayal, Brenda lashed out at Dawn and challenged the cry baby castaway to remove the teeth Brenda had retrieved out of the water. Dawn eventually took her choppers out — revealing a gap in her lower plate. Brenda wanted Dawn to feel the pain and humiliation she had felt when she was so cruelly blindsided.

Later, in the reunion show, Brenda seemed ready to move past the spat and accept Dawn’s move as just part of the game. Brenda was not at the CBS Studio City “Radford” lot for the reunion but was live via satellite, being about nine months pregnant.

Most of the jurists lashed out at Dawn for her constant crying jags and manipulative hugs. Reynold Toepfer called her “a complete fraud.” Dawn said she was simply trying to win money to help provide for her six adopted children. Enough with the six kids already, said everybody.

Other reunion highlights included hunky bartender Malcolm Freberg — a back-to-back Survivor player — edging out Brenda for the $100,000 Player of the Game award as voted by fans. A clip of Malcolm doing a scene on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful suggested he should stick to bartending.

“Special” agent Phillip Sheppard was back for more cheap laffs. He bestowed on Probst the Stealth R Us name, “Piercing Eagle,” which in English means “this gag is so played out.”

Popular former champ Boston Rob flew out to present No. 1 fan Phillip his new book, The Boston Rob Rules. The dude doesn’t miss a trick.

Back for his final appearance was Rudy Boesch, The now 85-year-old ex-Navy SEAL lit up the CBS switchboard, at least during the live East Coast airing, with his constant use of the word “queer” to describe his old original Survivor nemesis, Richard Hatch. A clip was shown of a naked Hatch —who appears to have survived that tax evasion charge — being cheeky back to Boesch.

Next time on Survivor: The 27th edition will be called Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Probst would say no more, leaving fans to guess it has something to do with swimming vampires or L.A. street gangs.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.